Want to know why Chandrababu Naidu was voted out in the earlier election? Read this!

http://www.monbiot.com/2004/05/18/this-is-what-we-paid-for/

Phoneswappr - Transfer contacts from one phone to another!

This is undoubtedly a great app!

They managed to identify a common yet difficult problem and offered a simple solution for it.

What am I talking about?

Remember the pressing thought in your mind whenever you get a new phone?

Although you are excited you are also dreading that you might end up losing a few contacts while trying to migrate them from your incumbent phone to your new and swanky device.

But this puts an end to your misery.

You can also install it from here.

Here are the top things I like about Phoneswappr:

a) Easy to install.
b) No ads
c) Very efficient. I could use this to transfer my contacts in a matter of five minutes.
d) Platform independent. Doesn't matter if your old phone is a Blackberry and your new phone is an I Phone. This works across operating platforms.

How does it work?

a) Download the app into your old phone.
b) The app enables you to upload your contacts into their secure cloud. (The contacts will be available on the cloud only for seven days after you upload it. So better download them into your new phone quickly!)
c) After you upload your contacts, you get a pass code
d) Download the app in your new phone
e) Insert the pass code
f) Download the contacts into your new phone

That is it!

And not even one contact is missed or garbled.

Even the Bat agrees!

3 tips to exponentially improve your life

Heard of the Pareto principle?

(Source of image: Here)

It says that 20% of causes are responsible for 80% of effects.

So how do you make small changes that can result in big differences?

Well, here are three to begin with:

• Always be on time: Respect time. Be ahead of time. But never be late. Apply this to everything you do. And you will always have more than enough time on your hands!

• Never procrastinate: You got to do what you got to do! So just do it! Keep at it. Just like I pushed myself to write this article :P

• Make people happy: Friends or Family. Acquaintances or Strangers. Smile at them. Help them out. Make small talk. Make them feel good about themselves. But just spread happiness.

Why don't you try these out?  And share your stories with me!

5 ways to become a star sales person

(Got the image from here!)

Is this your first job in sales? Interested in closing deals right away? Here are a few ways by which you can become a prodigious sales person:

1) Human to Human: Understand that you are selling to a human being and not a company. People buy from other people. So smile at your prospect. Genuinely listen. And be interested in what the other person has to share.

2) Find a common ground with your prospect: Nobody likes a pushy sales person. But everyone likes to find common ground with another person. So once you find what your prospect likes to talk about, you have hit gold mine. Also one must be well read to find common ground. This takes us to my next point. Caveat: If you fake interest, the gold mine can turn into a coal mine.

3) Read: Read as much as possible. Blogs and books. About anything. Don't restrict yourself.

4) Appearance is important: Wear good clothes. Polish your shoes. Apply a classy perfume. Nobody likes to spend time with an unkempt and smelly person.

5) Wish everyone you know on their birthday: Don't you feel good when someone who hasn't spoken to you for an year remembers your birthday?

I personally know someone who does most of this.
His name is Vijayant Dhaka.
And it is inspiring to see him in action!
Follow him @vijayantdhaka

Our legacy

Our predecessors left cave paintings, books and photographs.

These are difficult to salvage and can be lost to time.

But now we can turn every moment, intimate and otherwise, into a format that can be easily replicated and can last till an electromagnetic burst over rides machines.

Recently iCloud was hacked and compromising pictures of several important people were leaked.

As always, there were those who tried being humorous:



What if you or I were that celebrity?

Would all the money, fame and power make us so thick skinned that we could easily let this go.

Especially if one is an endearing and talented young female actor who is just learning her chops?

Our legacy will be interesting indeed.

Customer is not king

Almost everyone who knows about the word customer, would have heard about this: 'Customer is king'.

This must surely rate as one of the most absurd beliefs of all time.

Some more absurd beliefs are:

1) Evolution is a myth
2) There is no global warming
3) One can eat a hearty meal in Mumbai for Rs 12.
4) One can eat a hearty meal in Delhi for Rs 5
5) One can eat a hearty meal in Srinagar for Rs 1
6) Pedophilia is not a criminal condition, it is a mental illness

Since I am a salesman, I feel this way whenever anyone passionately espouses that customer is king:



(Source: www.memegenerator.net)

I feel it is wrong because of the following reasons:

1) A king will negotiate. But not haggle: Noticed a customer haggling over a few Rupees or Dollars? Treats your product/service as a commodity. Such a customer would refuse to take ROI (Return on Investment) into account. A customer who views the larger picture and does not insist on 'right-pricing' every six months or year is your king.

2) A king will be fair: If your customer admits that his team has been at fault as well, then this customer is a king. Otherwise expect to be badgered about the 'non-user-friendliness' of your software even if the customer's team member thinks 'out of the box' like him:


(Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mfl/lowres/mfln6394l.jpg)

3) A king will know what he wants:  Have you heard your customer say 'I am not getting the expected results. Therefore I plan to discontinue your service'. You might be exasperated as you had offered the best possible service. In such a case, the customer doesn't really know what he wants. So better to let him figure it out. You can wait till the customer has this moment:


(Source: http://chakracenter.org/2013/03/07/ever-onward-the-divine-ridiculous/)

So treat those customers who are kings as kings. The others can be treated like the Common Man.

Calling up a prospect?

I am a sales man.

Whenever I call my prospects (who has been already warmed up) or customers, I introduce myself, greet them and ask whether is it a good time to speak with them?

I picked this trait up while interning and have observed my colleagues picking this up from me.

So this is how my prospects and customers perceive me:

And therefore it is hard for them to say no :)

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I am also a customer.

Whenever someone calls me to sell, the following happens:

1) The caller introduces her name and company (which is fine) but does not ask whether I am free to speak to her (which is rude).

2) Almost all callers address me as Mr Srinivas (which, incidentally, is my father's name). I hate this as companies today spend millions of dollars into customer insights ( a fancy term to understand more about the customer), but cannot state my name properly. They could just address me as Sham. But I believe they will waste some more share holder money and take another half a decade to get this right.

3) They immediately begin to parrot the not so well rehearsed sales pitch which can even put Karan Pandava off! (I am referring to Karan from Mahabharat who would always give whatever anyone would ask from him after his daily morning prayers to the Sun God. So the pun is that if it can annoy a great giver like Karan it can certainly annoy a Mr McScrooge such as myself! :P )

4) Unlike several others I listen patiently, thank the person for calling and state that I am not interested. They take my word and immediately disconnect. They don't even wish me a good day! :(

I perceive the caller like this:

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Companies could offer training on the following aspects:

1) Good Manners: Ask the receiver whether it is a good time to speak.

2) Ask Questions: Ask whether the receiver requires a product. If not, then whether the receiver is happy with the incumbent product. 

3) Generate a Bait/USP/Any other pioneering term your marketing man can come up with!:  Use some of the insights churned out by their market research team to generate an attractive number. This would be a number backed by facts. Let us consider the concept of term insurance. Term insurance is cheaper and offers substantially higher coverage than traditional money back plans. If you invest the rest of the money that you ended up saving, because you bought a term insurance plan, in a recurring deposit (not even fancy mutual funds) you might end up generating wealth worth Rs 10 lakhs in 7 years. I figured this using Excel and therefore bought a term plan. I am sure  MNC behemoths that are employed with brainy suited up corporate types even know the accurate figure. For some reason they don't share this with the agent who makes calls.

4) Some more good manners!: Thank the receiver for her time and wish her a nice day.

If they manage to do that, they might be perceived by the prospects as the pretty blonde lady in the picture below is perceived by men.



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